God made man in His tangible likeness

by forming Adam's body from dust.

Then He created man's intangible image,

by breathing into him a personality.

Man is created in the tangible likeness of God's shape

.......... with head, hands, feet, arms, legs, etc.

Man is created in the intangible image of God,

...........with His ability to think, feel and decide.

God made man in His own image, after His likeness.

Image means shape, illusion or resemblance and

Likeness means model, shape or resemblance in Hebrew.

"And God said, Let us make man in our image,

after our likeness. . . .

.......So God created man in his own image,

..........in the image of God created He him;

............male and female created He them."

...........................Genesis 1:26-27

If men had simply turned to the Word of God,

they would have found the answer to who they are

in Jesus Christ.

Great philosophers and psychologists have written much
.........about man without coming to any real conclusions.

Having been born again of the Spirit, we have a choice.
Are we going to be in the world or in Christ.
WHO IN JESUS CHRIST ARE YOU?

We are empowered to be like Jesus;

not because the law demands it [although it does]

but because love inspires it.

The Spirit of the living God energizes us to

live and move and have our being in Him.

When we become so aware of what the
..........Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ
....................has provided for us
in the spirit-realm new birth,
in the soul-realm peace and understanding,
in the body-realm health and strength,
in the social-realm favor, and
in the financial-realm prosperity,
we become inspired to glorify God every minute of our lives.

This love that caused God to give His only begotten Son,
.....is so great, that we are motivated to live a life beyond
............what the Old Testament Law required of us.

We can place ourselves in the hands of a loving father
who provides all of our needs according to His riches
in glory by Christ Jesus.

Now we are beginning to see what is ours in Christ,

not that things become our objective,

but that Christ is our all in all.

Others are beginning to understand through

diligent study of the Bible

that the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ

has provided salvation for us in every realm of life.

We learn how to walk after the Spirit to experience
......soul-realm salvation which can only be experienced
.............after the new birth of the spirit.

Even the soul realm must be saved by grace
.......through faith and that not of ourselves.

We do not comtinue in sin that grace may abound.

Salvation goes beyond the spirit realm.
......It includes the soul realm,
..............................the body realm,
....................................the social realm and
..........................................the financial realm.

When we continually entertain soul-realm unbelief, worry,

vain imaginations, and lack of peace,

we are not saved in the soul realm, although we may have

been born again or saved in the spirit realm.

There is a difference between born again and saved.

A person can be saved or born again in the spirit realm

and still have problems in the soul realm.

Much emphasis in placed on obedience

by turning back to the discipline of the flesh

for present and future cleansing and salvation.

Although many who are born-again believers,
............live as though there is little assurance of
...........................cleansing from their present sin.

Those who believe in being born-again understand
......that we must trust in the shed blood of Jesus
........to cleanse our spirits from the death that came
..........from past sin.

Many other people understand that we must be
born-again of the Spirit,
as Jesus instructed Nicodemus in John Chapter 3.

The new birth has to be more than a decision to change
our life style in response to the emotional appeal
of the death of Jesus Christ.

In ourselves we can not decide to love like Jesus loved
and accomplish it without His help.

It is not that the church members
............do not want to love one another
......................[a few may not];
the problem is that they have no ability
............to "agape love" one another.

The world does not know that we are His disciples.
Jesus said,
"By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples,
if ye have love one for another."
John 13:35

The body of Christ, the church,
has fallen short of showing the love
and service exemplified by Jesus.

The cross becomes only an emotional appeal
.......for us to change our way of living
..............from immorality to morality
.....................by our own disciplined decision making.

Many people only understand that the life of Jesus
was an example that we must follow in order for us
to go to heaven.

Most differences that come between Christians are
.............because of what it means to be born again.